The first month shaped up as the Bengals' most daunting

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Elandon Roberts Jersey , with three road games in the first four. The offense and defense were getting accustomed to new systems. And then the injuries began.Running back Joe Mixon tore knee cartilage. Center Billy Price tore a foot ligament. Linebacker Preston Brown sprained an ankle. Linebacker Vontaze Burfict was suspended all month for another NFL policy violation.Cincinnati (3-1) came through it successfully with a handful of big plays and a resurgent Andy Dalton . Now the Bengals are getting some of those important players back as they settle into a more cushy part of the schedule — four home games in the next five, starting with the Miami Dolphins (3-1) on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium.Things are looking up in Cincinnati, off to its best start since it won the AFC North in 2015."It's a new team, a new energy around here," cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick said.The Dolphins are trying to regroup from their first loss, a 38-7 drubbing by the Patriots that highlighted their flaws. Both lines got pushed around , and injuries forced adjustments that didn't turn out so well."It was a humbling experience," defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said.The Bengals want to keep their momentum going during home games against the Dolphins and against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers the following week. The Dolphins need to pull out of their one-week funk and not allow it to turn into a downward trend.Some things to watch Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium:DALTON'S RESURGENCE: The Bengals' eighth-year quarterback has been a key to their turnaround, getting off to his best start since 2015 in a redesigned offense. He's thrown 11 touchdown passes, his best total for an opening four-game stretch.During a 37-36 win at Atlanta on Sunday, he had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in the first half, when he missed on only two passes. He led a winning 16-play drive, culminating in a touchdown pass to A.J. Green with 7 seconds left."We have to keep playing the way we have been and keep the confidence level high, because we've shown we can do it," Dalton said. "We just have to keep it going."HUMBLE PIE?Godchaux hinted that the Dolphins lost a little motivation by winning their first three games, so the drubbing by the Patriots could provide a correction. The Dolphins lead the AFC East despite ranking in the bottom half of the league in many offensive and defensive categories."Believe it or not, we needed that loss to get back on track Shaq Mason Jersey ," Godchaux said. "As a team we just needed that. We were 3-0. We got a wakeup call."ON THE LINEThe Dolphins' lines have been depleted and got pushed around against the Patriots, who rushed for 175 yards while the Dolphins were held to 172 total yards.Center Daniel Kilgore suffered a season-ending triceps injury, and defensive tackle Jordan Phillips was released after another poor game punctuated by a sideline outburst. Veteran Travis Swanson replaces Kilgore. The Dolphins earlier lost guard Josh Sitton with a season-ending shoulder injury."We just got crushed," coach Adam Gase said.NOT MOVING THE CHAINSThe Dolphins have converted 31 percent of their third downs, which ranks third-worst in the NFL. They were 3 for 11 against New England and had the ball for less than 24 minutes."We were bad on third, we were bad on second, and we were bad on first," quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. "It's all tied together. When you're in third-and-long situations, which we were, you're not going to be in good situations. It really comes down to first and second down, being efficient and keeping it third-and-manageable."Tannehill has often been knocked for his play on third down. This year his quarterback rating is 72.8 in those situations, compared with 106.1 overall.LETTING THEM MOVE THE CHAINSThe Dolphins will be going against a defense that's last in the league by far on third down, allowing opponents to convert 57 percent of the time. It's the biggest problem with a defense that's ranked 29th overall and has allowed the 10th-most points in the league.Cincinnati hopes that getting Burfict back from his four-game suspension for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancers will help fix the problems."I feel like he balances everything out," Kirkpatrick said.AP Sports Writer Steven Wine in Davie, Florida, contributed to this report.Week 2 NFL picks: Jaguars picked to get revenge against Patriots for 2017 AFC Championship Game As much as I would love to sit here in front of my laptop for the next three hours and give you my in-depth thoughts on every single Week 2 NFL game, my girlfriend and I are visiting friends for a wedding this week (she’s the maid of honor and is very excited about it 鈥?I know that because I’ve been hearing about it on a never-ending loop for about two years now Cheap Stephen Gostkowski Jersey , ever since our friends became engaged), so I’m on a massive time crunch.With all of the wedding activities going on this week, plus celebrating the birthday of one of our friends getting married, plus visiting with other family and friends, going out to dinners and all the other things, I’m considering it a minor miracle that I’ve managed to find 30 minutes to get this week’s picks out in the open. Due to the time crunch, we’re keeping the Week 2 picks short and sweet. We’ll call them the speed picks. You’ll be in and out of here in five minutes tops鈥?Home teams are in caps, and lines are courtesy of OddsShark.com)Panthers (+6) over FALCONSAtlanta can’t come through in the red zone, even though they have one of the best receivers in the league in Julio Jones. Are they an overrated team? Probably a little bit. Let’s just forget about the fact that I was hyping up their offense just a few short weeks ago 鈥?that never happened.Browns (+9) over SAINTSI’m picking the Browns. Somebody hire me a psychiatrist, please.Texans (-1) over TITANSIt doesn’t matter that Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins were pretty bad against the Patriots last week. They aren’t going to be that bad all season.Colts (+5.5) over REDSKINSAndrew Luck had a week to get reintroduced to the NFL. Now he has to get back to playing like he was selected No. 1 overall in the 2012 draft.Chiefs (+4) over STEELERSDid you see the way the Chiefs throttled the Chargers last week? Also, did you see the way the Steelers battled the Browns 鈥?to a tie? Yeah, exactly.Chargers (-7) over BILLSDon’t even get me started on this Bills team. After Nathan Peterman completely sucked last week, they are now opting to start their incredibly raw rookie quarterback, Josh Allen, against the Chargers this week, then most likely again against the Vikings next week, then against the Packers the week after that. Allen could not be getting a more brutal start to his career. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Buffalo has no chance at competing this year regardless of who they start at QB. I don’t understand why they don’t continue to preserve Allen by sending the god awful Peterman out there to take those beatings instead.JETS (-3) over DolphinsHere’s a scary thought: after the Jets steamrolled Matt Patricia’s Lions 48-17 on Monday Cheap Malcom Brown Jersey , we might have to deal with the possibility that they might actually be good. Uh oh.Vikings (+1.5) over PACKERSAaron Rodgers isn’t 100 percent. And if he doesn’t play, Green Bay is doomed.Eagles (-3) over BUCCANEERSThe Buccaneers shocked the world by knocking off the Saints 48-40 in New Orleans last week, but we can’t get sucked. We can’t get sucked in.We CAN’T get sucked in.RAMS (-13) over CardinalsThis spread is insanely huge, and yet Sean McVay’s team is so awesome that I’m still picking them.49ERS (-6.5) over LionsI haven’t decided yet, but after seeing how clueless Matt Patricia looked on Monday, and after seeing that Detroit defense crap the bed against a rookie quarterback making his NFL debut in primetime on the road, and after seeing Matt Stafford throw something like 174 interceptions, I might pick against the Lions for 16 straight games this season. We’ll see how things go. JAGUARS (+1) over PatriotsThe Patriots always seem to get their butts kicked at some point in the first four games of every season. Of their first four games in 2018, this game seems the most likely to be that game. Plus, there is also the revenge factor for Jacksonville after last year’s AFC title game.Raiders (+6) over BRONCOSThis game will tell us for sure just how much Jon Gruden has messed up the Raiders. If they can’t beat the Broncos, they don’t have a chance.COWBOYS (-3) over GiantsThe same theory applies to the Cowboys in this game too.BEARS (-3) over SeahawksHave Bears fans recovered from last week’s Sunday night punch in the face at Lambeau Field? I couldn’t blame them if they haven’t. This week’s game at home against Seattle is the ultimate rebound game. Best of luck, Chicago fans.Alright, time to go to a wedding. See you all next week!Last week: 11-4-1This week: 0-1
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